Nine of the 18-holes have been cleaned up and are open for play during school holidays and the team of volunteers behind the clean-up are looking to develop and renew the course over the coming months and years as it is a work in progress.

From my brief look at the course it appears to have a mixture of playing surfaces. Some of the holes and obstacles appear to be 'eternit' style Miniature Golf, while others are more unique felt on concrete holes.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd makes it four Christmas competition wins in-a-row!Gravesend’s Brad ‘Norovirus’ Shepherd won the annual Christmas ‘Do’ for the fourth year in-a-row with victory in the “Riverclose Worlds UnProfessional Minigolfer's Darts Championship” held at Rileys Victoria in London on Sunday 23rd December 2012.

Brad Shepherd 'takes' the cup

The tournament saw eight dartists step up to the oche on the evening and after a quick warm-up and a few swift pints the format for the event was decided and the draw was made.

The eight players were drawn into two groups for a round-robin stage, with the group winners advancing to the semi-finals along with the two group stage runners-up. As the reigning Christmas Champion Brad was the seeded player in Group 2, with BMGA Darts Champion Alan ‘Stormin’ Norman drawn into Group 1.

The players inaction. Lots of mental arithmetic in full flow

Alan ‘Stormin’ Norman qualified as the top player in Group 1 after beating Jon ‘The Stance’ Angel in a play-off to decide the group winner after both players had won 2 and lost one game.Richard ‘Squire’ Gottfried was the winner of Group 2 with three wins from his three matches. Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd was the group runner-up.

Steve 'What's the Skinny?' Gow draws quite a crowd

Results from Group 1 – all matches one-leg 301-straight-in, double-out

•Chris Jones beat Alan Norman

•Jon Angel beat Steve Gow

•Alan Norman beat Jon Angel

•Steve Gow beat Chris Jones

•Jon Angel beat Chris Jones

•Steve Gow lost to Alan Norman

Rankings from Group 1

1. Alan Norman – won 2, lost 1 Q*

2. Jon Angel – won 2, lost 1 q

3. Chris Jones – won 1, lost 2

3. Steve Gow – won 1, lost 2

* Alan beat Jon in a play-off to determine who would qualify as the group winner to face the group runner-up from Group 2

Results from Group 2 – all matches one-leg 301-straight-in, double-out

•Richard Gottfried beat Emily Gottfried

•Seth Thomas lost to Brad Shepherd

•Richard Gottfried beat Brad Shepherd

•Emily Gottfried beat Seth Thomas

•Seth Thomas lost to Richard Gottfried

•Brad Shepherd beat Emily Gottfried

Rankings from Group 2

1. Richard Gottfried – won 3, lost 0 Q

2. Brad Shepherd – won 2, lost 1 q

3. Emily Gottfried – won 1, lost 2

4. Seth Thomas – won 0, lost 3

The semi-finals saw Squire face The Stance in a 501 match, eventually finishing on double one. In the other match The Fist picked up the win against Stormin to advance to yet another Christmas Final.

Before the final Norman & Angel faced-off for the third time in the evening in a one-leg 501 game to decide who would take the last spot on the podium. The BMGA Darts Champion showed his class and took the win against Jon ‘Safe Darts’ Angel.

3rd/4th place play-off – one-leg 501-straight-in, double-out

•Alan Norman beat Jon Angel

The final match was played in a best of three-legs format on one of the ‘fancy’ boards with electronic scoring. The referee/scorer for the contest was Emily ‘Dagenham Dan’ Gottfried. The first leg was won by The Fist after innumerable chances were squandered by both players. The second leg was clinched by Squire to mild interest from the spectators.

With the crowd growing restless and eager to head off for a curry in Bayswater Brad nailed his finish to take the win and his fourth Christmas ‘Do’ title victory in four years! An amazing achievement indeed.

Final – best of three-legs 301-straight-in, double-out

•Brad Shepherd beat Richard Gottfried 2-1

The ever-popular Brad Shepherd receives congratulations from his fellow competitors

Ranking Table

1.Brad Shepherd

2.Richard Gottfried

3.Alan Norman

4.Jon Angel

5.Seth Thomas

6.Emily Gottfried

7.Steve Gow

8.Chris Jones

Following the main-event Alan ‘Stormin’ Norman organised a game of ‘Halve-It’ between the eight contestants. With three lives each the players attempted to best the previous player’s score, with any failure to exceed the target meaning a life was lost. Guess who won? Alan was the runner-up though.

Alan 'Halve-It' Norman and another player at the Darts Tournament

Brad ‘Mr Christmas’ Shepherd picked up yet another victory on the night as he was on the winning team, along with Seth Thomas & Steve Gow in the three-a-side Table Football match.

I'm a big fan of underdog's and always give them a cheer and my support. During the Olympic Games I met San Marino's Olympic Archer Emanuele Guidi in the Olympic Park, got his autograph and had a photo with him. I'd seen his match against Im Dong Hyun on TV earlier in the week and was cheering him on throughout. Unfortunately the 'wildcard' was eliminated from the competition but gave a good account of himself and had the crowd chanting for "San Marino" by the end of the match.

The moment that made the Olympic Games for me - meeting San Marino's top Archer Emanuele Guidi while walking through the Olympic Park!!!

Last night Emily and I attended the 2013 Ladbrokes PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace and amongst the first round proper matches, got to see a Preliminary Round clash between the USA's Paul Lim and Mohd Latif Sapup from Malaysia. Both were underdogs in the tournament, but Lim was the favourite with his history of being the first player to hit a 9-dart finish in a World Championship back in 1990. Mohd Latif Sapup aka 'The Jerker' was making his debut in a major darts tournament and was the 2000-1 rank outsider, so he's the man I had my money on. Unfortunately despite his best efforst he was on the losing end of a 4-1 result.

I also play two of the world's biggest underdog sports - Minigolf and Dodgeball. Both are great fun and easily accessible to play.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

On Friday 14th December Emily and I made another revisit to Felixstowe, Suffolk and had a game of the 13-hole indoor Adventure Golf course at Manning's Amusement Park.

Playing hole 4 of the Magical Golf FX course. Often a good chance for a hole-in-one

The Magical Golf FX Minigolf course is located within the amusement arcade and is an interesting course to play, with a variety of themes and obstacles. It's always a tricky course to tackle too.

Emily with a choice of cups to putt into on the the revolving first green

In our match-up I defeated Emily with a score of 32 to her 44 over the 13-holes. Once again neither of us managed to win a free game on the 'lucky' 13th hole. My round of 32 was, as far as I can remember, my best round on the course in all the times we've played there. And we've played there a lot over the years!

The uphill 5th hole caused some problems for Emily this time around, while I just missed out on a nice two

The course was the 5th we ever played when we first started out touring the UK's seasides. At that point we never thought we'd go on to visit over 500 courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

The tricky 11th at Manning's. I managed to score a bit of a fluky ace on my go

Monday, December 17, 2012

As a Coeliac of some five years I sometimes still hanker after items of food I used to be able to eat when I was ‘normal’. One of the snacks I’ve fancied having on more than one occasion is Pork Scratchings/Crackling. Not the healthiest of foods, but a very nice accompaniment to an alcoholic beverage (now normally Cider, unless I’m lucky to have found a Gluten Free beer, ale or lager).

When you’ve got Coeliac Disease a simple act such as buying a bag of crisps, a sandwich, or a chocolate bar is a pain. You either have to study the labels intently which is annoying and will always remind you of the fact you are a Coeliac, or you opt for the same old item of food – I like to have a variety.

So when I read an article in the Daily Mirror about the launch of Awfully Posh Pork Crackling and that it was also OK for Coeliacs I was especially pleased as it was a type of food I hadn’t eaten for over five years!

Via Twitter I found out that Awfully Posh Pork Crackling is available at branches of Waitrose and online at Waitrose and Amazon. Not having a Waitrose in Luton and no other need to travel to my nearest branches in Harpenden or Hitchin I had to wait until last weekend and a revisit to Ipswich where we’d heard that a new Waitrose store had opened.

The Awfully Posh Pork Crackling on the shelf in Waitrose

We had to hunt around a few different aisles and sections of the store, but eventually found the Awfully Posh Pork Crackling in the Free From section itself, rather than with other snacks. This is a good thing for Coeliacs/people on a Gluten Free diet, but it means that people looking for a Pork Crackling snack in the conventional snack section may miss out!

There are currently two flavours of the Awfully Posh Pork Crackling snacks available. One is Anglesey Sea Salt and the other is Scorchingly Hot Chilli. I bought both, but have so far only tried the Anglesey Sea Salt flavour. I bought two bags of the Anglesey Sea Salt flavour and have scoffed them both. The packs are crammed with Pork Crackling, are well priced and most importantly they are delicious.

Tentatively tucking into my first Pork Scratching in five years

The Awfully Posh Pork Crackling can also be found in Whole Foods Markets, Cook shops, Harrods and Harvey Nichols. Fingers crossed Awfully Posh Snacks will be stocked in pubs and bars in the future, I know I’d definitely scoff them if I saw them for sale alongside other pub staples such as crisps and nuts.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Tomorrow (Friday 14th December) marks the first-ever official Christmas Jumper Day and people all over the country will be dressing in (a sort of style) to support Save the Children UK's festive fundraising campaign.

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Playing the Chrizy Golf Christmas-themed Crazy Golf course in Manchester. The course was the 313th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

On Friday 30th November 2012 my fellow Minigolfer John ‘Big Al’ Moore and I headed up (or in his case down) to Manchester and the 9-hole “Chrizy Golf” Crazy Golf course that is set-up in Manchester’s Piccadilly Place until Christmas Eve!

Christmas + Crazy Golf = Chrizy Golf

I’d found out about the course via a blog post by the team at Putterfingers and as the 9-hole festive-themed course is only in place for six weeks I was really keen to get to see and play it before it was gone. And when we heard there was a Crazy Golf competition lined-up we arranged our trip.﻿

The view of the Chrizy Golf course (and a tram) from the bridge opposite Piccadilly Place

The course is only open from private bookings made in advance so John and I were unable to have any friendly fun rounds before the Chrizy Golf Masters Championship teed-off! We did however ‘warm-up’ with some cold drinks in the bar area and had a look around the course. It looks great and each of the 9-holes is well made with most of them having a couple of different routes to the hole/ace lines.﻿

The 313th course visited and played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

The Chrizy Golf competition teed-off and John and I found ourselves in a right battle with me scoring a run of twos and John slightly up and down, carding a four and an ace along with a pair of twos in the first four holes.﻿

John 'YI' Moore fires a shot on the 7th hole

Another four was to follow for John, along with a bogey three, but he finished with flair, scoring a great hole-in-one on the 9th hole to record a Chrizy Golf Masters score of 21(+3). I carded two threes and no aces for a round of 20(+2) which was enough to win the event and take the title of Chrizy Golf Champion along with the tournament trophy! Proving that wearing a festive jumper was a lucky and wise move*.

Relaxing by the 'fire' on hole 9 following my victory in the Chrizy Golf Masters minigolf competition

Following the competition we were able to have some more rounds and in the closely fought contests we each recorded scores of 22(+4) in game one. John then defeated me 25-26 in game two. We then played an 18-hole Matchplay Chrizy Golf game which saw John lead all the way until I won on the second hole of the sudden-death play-off!

The longest hole on the course!

If you’re a fan of Crazy Golf and/or Christmas the Chrizy Golf course is well worth a look.

While in Manchester to play the Chrizy Golf course and various other shenanigans at the weekend I was driving from Old Trafford to the Trafford Centre via Stretford in Manchester when I spotted a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man outside Gleave Tool Centre on Chester Road!

Wacky Waving Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube-men (or Airdancers to give them their technical name) are often used to help businesses in their advertising (as well as a few other things if you believe Family Guy's Al Harrington).﻿

Once again the Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man did its job in raising awareness of Gleave Tool Centre (founded in 1833 when it traded as "Wooden Plane Manufacturers and Dealers of Tools and Sheffield Cutlery"!).